Tennessee

Members gather to enjoy a Virtual Wine Tasting with owner Barry Waitte of Tamber Bey Vineyards (on the TV screen)

Despite the nasty virus and the rules and regulations inflicted upon us by our health department (humorously referred to as “The Ministry of Health”), the Tennessee Chapter is alive in spirit since gathering in person seems to be an issue at the moment. Members have kept in touch by phone and group emails and several small groups have gathered in back yards for the occasional cook outs and wine tastings. Others have joined the zoom wine tastings offered though KOV national or organized by other chapters. Our hopes of a Christmas party were dashed by the rising number of cases in our county and added restrictions.

Members Holly and Walter Elkins and Jim and Angie Lenschau, who are neighbors, “potlucked” dinner most nights each week and tasted lots of wine. After going through many bottles, they decided it would be interesting to taste and compare boxed wines. Among the wines they tested were Nighthawk Black Rich Red Blend and Nighthawk Black Bourbon Barrel Cabernet Sauvignon, Folonari Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, and all of the Bota Box Reds, including Old Vine Zinfandel. Now that they have been through that process, they plan to conduct a blind tastings of boxed wines for our chapter when we can all be together again.

Our future plans include an Assemblage to formally induct our new members and many celebrations in homes when we have all been vaccinated. Like everyone else, we can’t wait to be together again. Our biggest celebration of 2020 was saying goodbye to a difficult year and hopes that we’d see much better days … and each other … in 2021. It couldn’t get here soon enough!